UPDATED
By Lee Wei Lian
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 12 — Former MCA deputy president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek has urged the party to hold fresh elections and called on his bitter rival Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat to resign by Thursday.
He also urged the party office bearers appointed by Ong to step down and asked Ong not to chair the central committee meeting this Thursday.
The central committee is meeting then to resolve the question of whether Ong should resign after the party general assembly passed a motion of no confidence against him.
“Only then can there be real democracy,” Chua told the media in his first press conference since the general assembly last Saturday overturned his suspension but rejected his bid to come back as deputy president.
He was coy however on whether he would run in an election, saying he will only decide after the central committee makes a decision.
Chua said that while technically, elected office bearers can only be removed if two thirds of the assembly voted for it, he said that the president now lacked credibility and moral standing after the motion of no confidence was narrowly passed by just a hair over half of the delegates less than a year into his presidency.
“Ong cannot survive a motion of no confidence and saw his support drop from 60 per cent of delegates to 49 per cent even after having the backing of all the party machinery and media,” he said.
He said that fresh elections was the only way that the top leadership would be able to reflect the aspirations of the MCA membership and claimed he had received much support for the idea.
This push for a party poll puts Chua and his supporters in conflict with the two men widely speculated to be tapped by the central committee to take over the top post should Ong vacate — Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai and Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha.
Liow had today expressed his opposition to fresh elections saying that the party was not deadlocked and that the leadership crisis would be solved by the central committee using constitutional mechanisms.
Kong has already expressed his readiness to helm the party should he be asked to do so.
The so called third force which has claimed credit for engineering the defeat of both Ong and Chua on Saturday has also called for an election.
While said to be small in number in terms of delegates, the masterminds behind it have shown that they are not to be taken lightly.
While Chua did not rule out running for office if an election was held, for now at least, he appeared satisfied to “stabilise the party as an ordinary member”.
The ex-deputy president issued a warning however, that the central committee should not waste this “golden opportunity” to put the party in order by reaching for the middle ground and bringing together the two rival factions.
“If you do the wrong thing, we will have a problem all over again. Both camps should be accommodated. If you make appointments, don’t say this is Ong’s man can and that is Chua’s man so cannot,” he said.
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